Clarendon, VT --On June 23, at approximately 10:00 AM, the Rutland Barracks was contacted regarding an unattended death in Clarendon, Vermont. Detectives from the Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation were called to investigate.

On July 30, the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be acute intoxication due to compounds MDPV, Alpha-PVP, and Pentylone, commonly known as bath salts. The manner of death was determined to be an accident (substance abuse).

Whitehead was pronounced dead at Alton Memorial Hospital on April 27, 2011, after being found unresponsive and not breathing at her home. In addition to MDPV, toxicology testing also revealed the presence of marijuana metabolites.

MDPV was uniformly distributed among multiple tissues (blood, brain, muscle, cerebrospinal fluid and lung) at concentrations of approximately 0.4 to 0.6 µg/mL. Tissue and fluids responsible for detoxification/excretion had higher concentrations of MDPV (kidney, liver and bile > 0.8 µg/mL). A blood concentration >/= 0.4 µg/mL was judged sufficient to cause death.

We report the case of a 40-year-old male who injected and snorted "bath salts" containing MDPV and subsequently became agitated, aggressive, and experienced a cardiac arrest. He was resuscitated after his initial arrest; however, he developed hyperthermia, rhabdomyolysis, coagulopathy, acidosis, anoxic brain injury, and subsequently died.

This is the first case in the medical literature to report death due to isolated confirmed MDPV intoxication. The manner of death is also consistent with excited delirium syndrome.